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Positive Futures I took to it like a duck to water.”
Alison says the organisation turned her life around and gave her more confidence.
“You never have two days the same,” she adds.
Allison works as a support worker, providing day work and sleepovers. “It’s normal day-today stuff like cooking, cleaning and shopping. At the weekend we do fun things. You’re in their home the whole day,” she says.
“One of the girls loves shopping, so we go into town for her to buy a new top. She’s non-verbal, so you give her a choice of tops. She likes to go into Kelly’s Cellars for a drink. She likes the traditional music and she stays there for about an hour.
“One of the other girls likes to go to drama and ballet classes. They all love driving. They would go out driving in the countryside for a good two hours at a time. You have to support them with anything that they do.”
Alison says it’s a great job to be in and advises people to give it a go.
“It’s not the kind of job I would ever have dreamed of applying for, only my advisor said to me, ‘I see you working in that kind of job’. Give it a go, you might surprise yourself like I did and love the job,” she says.
“I would have thought the job was not for me because I did not have all those qualifications, but I got all that on the job.”
Alison says the role is suited to anyone who is caring.
“It’s for somebody who doesn’t want to do everything for them but supports them in being able to do what they can for themselves. Anybody with a caring nature (can apply). That is the basis of it and then it just comes to you,” she says. “It’s a privilege I feel to work in Positive Futures at the minute because we are in the front line. We are always looking for new people.”
Positive Future supports people with a learning disability, acquired brain injury or autistic spectrum condition across Northern Ireland and in several locations in the Republic of Ireland. To find out more about applying, visit www. positives-futures.net. To find out more about sector-wide jobs, visit https://arcuk.org.uk/northern ireland/